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Alysanne Martell
Alysanne Baratheon, known more publicly as Alysanne Martell or Alysanne Nymeros Martell is the current Princess of Dorne and head of House Martell. She is the eldest in a set of triplets and descends from the line of her great-grandfather, Trystane Martell. She is, as of 375 AC, married to Robert Baratheon, and pregnant with Orys I Baratheon's bastard, disguised as his cousin. In the last moon of 375 AC, she delivered Nymerys and Quentys Martell, her sons by the now-dead King. As Dorne is sworn to the Kingdom of the Iron Throne, Alysanne is too sworn to House Baratheon of King's Landing. However, ever since being insulted by King Orys I Baratheon during the Second War of Reclamation and subsequently snubbed for a marriage proposal in favour of her bannermen of House Yronwood, tensions have risen between the two parties and in the wake of the Dance of the Stags, Alysanne has declared Dorne's independance from Iron Throne as it's own principality. The Princess is known to be a fierce Dornish patriot, incredibly prideful about her country and all those who live within it. Slights against her person are against Dorne itself, and she treats them with equal ire. She attempts to lead in the footsteps of her predecessor, her grandmother, Princess Nymeria Martell, who oversaw the Dornish Rebellion when Alysanne was just a child. Following the wedding of King Orys I Baratheon and Alysanne Yronwood, Alysanne Martell was assaulted by the King during a Dornish excursion to the capital's famed Dragonpit. Following that, she was hoisted off to the Red Keep and remained there as a political prisoner for a few moons. She was eventually married to Orys' sickly uncle Robert Baratheon to keep her bound in silence, and impregnated with the King's child so that the marriage was supposedly binding. As she had not yet been released from captivity, Dorne sought to free her themselves. However, it was ultimately un-needed -- Orys would release her himself after the Battle of Haystack Hall in the Dance of the Stags, fearing for his unborn child's safety should be she liberated by the Stormland Rebels, and trusting that Alysanne would ensure the child's survival. She would spend a fair few moons in Yronwood, the seat of House Yronwood, adjusting both to her difficult pregnancy and the mantle of Dorne once again. She would give her brother Daeron her blessing to raid the Crownlands, and shortly after King's Landing's surrender to the Kingdom of Winter, would give birth to her children. Appearance Alysanne has the fine hair of her Lys mother, Laerra of Lys, but takes after her father Prince Quentos Martell in many respects as well with easily-tanned skin and darker eyes. She is stout and in good shape, but is quickly growing with her pregnancy. History Birth Alysanne Martell, ruling Princess of Dorne, was born one of three; a difference of mere seconds and fate itself determined her inheritance as a leader. Her sisters, Ashara Martell & Arianne Martell, came shortly after the eldest princess in a birth that proved violent for the girl’s mother, the consort Laerra of Lys. The fair Laerra had come by ship months earlier to wed the heir of Dorne at the time, one Prince Quentos Martell, in a lavish ceremony, and came from a family rich with Essosi trade that was more than eager to invest in Dorne. The painful labour would last a day and night in 350 AC that left Sunspear holding its breath in anticipation of the outcome, none so more nervous than the Martells themselves. When at last the girls came screaming into the world it would eventually result in the passing of Laerra, who died from profuse bleeding. Quentos was beside himself. His Lyseni wife had proven fruitful, but perhaps too ripe for the withering sands of Dorne, which he said had ‘swallowed her whole, and left me with nothing but her babes’. Princess Nymeria, who ruled Dorne at the time, was said to have wept something fierce at the passing of her oldest son’s wife. A rare event indeed; named for the old Sand Snake who had been fiercer still, the Princess of Dorne was an adept warrior in her own right and was not known for useless things like tears. Even still, she was known as a kindhearted mother too and personally saw to Laerra’s body being returned to her family in Lys. Sh would spend many evenings attending to her grandchildren’s needs to ensure their survival upon her return. Cruel rumours sparked up after that trip, however, that Nymeria had a lover in Laerra’s family or perhaps in Laerra herself, and that was why she had been full of a sadness deeper than her own son’s. The Martells did everything they could to squash such baseless gossip, especially after a tragedy. Childhood For the three, Alysanne chiefly among them as the oldest, it would be an easy life for six years once the pains of their birth passed. They would grow up with time split between sprawling Sunspear and the beautiful Water Gardens, knowing a life of fun and comfort often mixed with the foul monotonous nature of education. There were many children there to entrance them -- Korra Sand, their great-aunt and a girl of mere 18, younger than even their trueborn aunt and uncle, was a fascination with her open ways and enthusiastic nature. Not to mention their beautiful uncle Marselen Sand who himself had an infant daughter named Obella Sand, born just a year ago to a mother who died in childbirth. Marselen was unashamed of raising the girl as his own and on his own, ensuring she wanted for nothing so long as he was around. In 351 AC the triplets’ father Prince Quentos would remarry; this time to the beautiful Lady Dyanna Dayne, who healed his broken heart over his first Lyseni wife and prove a gracious mother to her new stepchildren. Within the year she would give Quentos his first and only son, Prince Daeron Martell, another playmate for the unruly princesses. Their idyllic happiness would come crashing down around their ears with the Dornish Rebellion in 356 AC. It began for Martell with a demand from the north -- The loyalty of House Martell had to be proven in the wake of civil war from their bannermen. After long and hard debate, Prince Daeron, Dyanna's only son, was sent to be a ward of Storm’s End so that he might ride out the war outside of Dorne, and the rest of the children were sequestered away in the Spear Tower. Whilst the tower was meant to hold noble prisoners, it worked well as a safe harbour for the youngest and most precious of House Martell. The children’s aunt & Princess Nymeria’s only daughter, the proud Princess Rylona Martell, would watch over the four as her mother called the banners and rode to war with her husband, half-brother and sons. Alysanne would only perceive the siege of Sunspear through the walls and slits of the Spear Tower. She and her sisters, and her younger brother were not permitted to leave for obvious reasons -- They were the future of Dorne. As she would come to learn later, her grandmother Nymeria would treat with the traitorous & besieging House Gargalen with contempt, refusing to cow to traitors that she had already beaten once in the field who now looked to take her home. Her husband and Alysanne’s grandfather, Andrey of House Allyrion, slipped past the siege lines undetected to ride to his family’s seat at Godsgrace to bring aid but would be killed on his return trip by Gargalen scouts. Lord Allyrion was spurred into swifter action at the news and would join the forces of House Allyrion with the forces of House Jordayne-- Who had already arrived weeks earlier --to fully break the siege. Alysanne’s father, Prince Quentos, would lose a leg in the ensuing battle for Sunspear. Following the rebellion, life would settle back to uncertain normalcy. The triplets and Daeron would see little of their father following his loss of limb, as he opted to echo his great-grandfather Prince Doran and retreated into the Water Gardens for his peace much to his mother’s disappointment, who had known her grandfather well and was sad to see history repeat itself. Their Uncle Moran Martell, Nymeria’s youngest son, proved more entertaining and swiftly became the favourite of Alysanne and others, eager to throw himself into the pools of the Water Gardens with little thought to decorum to entertain the children. All as his displeased and depressed brother watched on and longed to join in. Not even their stepmother Dyanna could pull their father out of his new black mood; he would eventually die of a venomous snake bite in 362 AC, rumoured to be self-inflicted. Many servants claimed that Quentos had taunted the serpent into biting him in a final act of misplaced bravery and let the poison do it’s awful work as he sat by and watched his children play, so he might die with a smile on his face and not full of anger at his own body. His passing was only discovered by his wife when she ventured to check on her crippled husband, and her wail of grief is said to be still heard in the wind around the Water Gardens, memorialized by the ghost of Quentos as perhaps the last sound he ever heard, intermingling with the laughter of his girls. He had gone to join his first Lyseni love, the servants now said, they were together, at last, to await their children’s arrival. Teenagehood Now effectively without parents, the ageing Princess Nymeria was forced to step in to correct House Martell’s wayward path. She proclaimed Alysanne her heir at the age of 12 shortly after her son’s passing, as was her right as Quentos’ technical oldest. There was no protest from Alysanne’s uncle and aunt, who focused on burying their brother with honour, and as all in Dorne knew; a daughter came before a sister, and so did Alysanne come before her aunt Rylona. The now-widowed Dyanna was forced to return to Starfall, as her son was in the Stormlands and there was no reason for her to remain in Sunspear. Growing older each day, Nymeria knew she was not long for this world and spent long days with Alysanne in private, allowing the young girl to be privy to meetings with Nymeria’s council of advisors and even to sit in the second throne of Dorne, where her grandfather had one sat. Her grandmother did not have the heart to remarry, after seeing her husband’s head on a spike during the Rebellion. Around this time Rylona would give birth to her son Nymor Sand, supposedly by an Essosi pirate. Whilst disappointed, Nymeria permitted the son to remain, likely thinking of where her own name somewhat came from. It would only be four years before the Stranger would visit Sunspear once more, this time to take Nymeria to the rest of her family. The old Princess would die from a fast-burning fever at the age of 54, surrounded by her loving family. The next day Princess Alysanne of Dorne would attend to her new council as the new head of house. She was only 16, and a woman grown, but yet to take a husband, as had her sisters. This led to many a suitor to enter the halls of the Tower of the Sun, to profess undying dedication to the three, all of which were promptly sent to the finest brothel in the shadow city to forget all about their ‘beloved’ princesses. Unlike many in Westeros, Alysanne’s life had not simply revolved around the concept of marriage and reproduction -- Nymeria had been training her for rule, above else, and had failed to find a suitor worthy of her eldest grandchild before her death. This would later come to haunt the young Princess. Never one to discount family, Alysanne’s chief advisors were indeed her sisters. The three had been close since childhood after all, and there was nobody that Alysanne trusted more in matters of law than Ashara and Arianne. After a year of rule, two visitors that greatly interested Alysanne would come calling to Sunspear’s court, however -- Her brother, Daeron, and his companion, Theodan Baratheon. It would be the first time Alysanne lays eyes on her brother since their childhood, and there is understandably some awkwardness between them. The new Princess of Dorne would watch then from afar as the second Targaryen invasion began, but it was a problem for the Kingdom of Winter, and they were after all so very far away from Dornish lands. Her brother and his new friend were welcome at Sunspear any time, however, to begin rebuilding that long-lost relation. Sometime after this visit, a smallfolk girl would seek audience with the Princess, presenting her first nephew Trebor Sand as Daeron's bastard son, who Alysanne graciously accepted into the Martell household. Adulthood The Second War of Reclamation is what would finally rouse a peace-ridden Dorne to spears. After watching the Targaryens beat themselves bloody against the Northern host, it was evident that the new King of the Iron Throne intended to march. Alysanne is quick to summon all her bannermen, and after some debate among her family, offers her sister, Arianne, as a bride for the new King, Orys I Baratheon. There is no clear answer received, however, and the Dornish host joins with those of the Reach, with Alysanne’s sisters, brother, and her uncle also joining her to war. Rylona Martell remained in Sunspear with her bastard son, to rule in place of her niece for the duration they would be gone. Alysanne is no real fighter, but still leads wisely with knowledge gleaned from her grandmother and has her uncle as a commander within her host -- Her brother, Daeron, remained with Theodan Baratheon's pacifistic host -- and her sisters knew their way with weaponry as well. She would send men, led by her uncle Moran, to assist the King in beating back the Tully presence on the Claw, eventually forcing them to retreat with her beloved uncle returning victorious -- Despite the King’s awkward brush with the Stranger, which was best left unspoken. For the most part, Alysanne remains with the bulk of her men alongside Lord Mace Tyrell who eventually come to lead them in one giant host for the Throne. Her uncle rejoins them shortly after the Claw, so they might smash into the northern armies at the Battle of the Red Fork. It is a slaughter, with Alysanne forced into combat themselves with thousands of Dornish dead in the aftermath. It was a nightmare, no way around that, one that follows her to this day -- It would lead to new friendships, though. Raymar Stone, a Vale bastard who had spent much time in Essos who later joined the war retinue in Dorne, would save her life that day on the Red Fork. In recognition of his service to her, she would later name him her sworn shield once the dust had settled. Following the Red Fork, however, things would begin to look up. With the Tyrell host broken, Alysanne leads her wounded men to connect with Lord Celtigar and together they would defeat the Lords Tully & Arryn and take the town of Darry. This gives the Princess and her battered men time to rest from the effort as much as they can, eventually to be joined by the Tyrell and Baratheon forces after a slaughter at the hands of the Freys. This would be the first official encounter between the Princess and the King in-person without a battle getting into the way. Needless to say, the impression was not grand. No further mention of the potential marriage between Arianne and King Orys was made, with many believing she had been spurned in favour of another. This was somewhat accurate, but the majority of the dissolution of the potential marriage betwixt sun and stag was down to one crude implication. During the war council convened before the battle of Lord Harroway’s Town, the plan was to meet the enemy host in the field, with the King’s own strategy for it being disliked by the lords, ladies and sole Princess present; instead, the plan of the Martell Princess who had fought at the Red Fork was favoured, and sourly, the King made a remark about bedding the three Dornish Princesses simultaneously as a rebuke -- Taken as a taunt to the famous 'looseness' of the Dornish people. Shocked into silence and full of ire, Alysanne would not forget the slight against herself and her sisters anytime soon, even as the Throne’s host went headfirst into one of the most decisive battles of the war. Many say that the Martells were rejected by the crown, but in truth, Alysanne had decided then and there that she would not sell her own sister to such a man, one not fit to even be a true King over her. And if he made any more advances, she swore to her uncle that she would castrate the royal stag herself. Present Day Despite the new tension, the Throne’s host would emerge bloody and victorious, and following negotiations between both monarchs, the war creeps to a close at last. The Martells march home with their host, having been at war for two whole years, and tired from the effort -- To nobody’s surprise, the offer of marriage was rejected between the Crown and the Martells, though Alysanne was incensed to hear a Yronwood was to be Queen instead. Perhaps the most surprising thing to come out of the whole war was the approach of Lord Theodan Baratheon, an ally in the war, who offered to accept the marriage offer in his cousin’s stead. Arianne was far more comfortable marrying the Lord that she knew than the King that she didn’t, and thus was sent to Storm’s End to wed at once. It was a tearful, uncomfortable farewell, as the triplets had never been apart before this very moment. Of course, the prospect had come up with the proposed marriage to the King. But now it was really, actually happening, and it hurt more than Alysanne could say to see her sister ride off to join her new betrothed, their trio down to just two, soon to be one. One surprise following the loss would be the reclamation of Prince Daeron, her younger half-brother, who chose to return with his estranged family instead of travelling back to Storm’s End. With a sombre march back to Sunspear, Alysanne was greeted by her aunt, who had ruled justly for two years, and was immensely grateful to be back among family in her home. Returning to the duties of the Princess of Dorne was difficult at first but she was soon acclimated with the guidance of her aunt. Ashara, the last of the Princesses three, would soon leave too, married to Olyvar Uller following the aftermath of the war. Additionally, in a ploy to regain some lost influence, Alysanne's uncle Moran was betrothed to the Lady Perianne Yronwood, a woman with famously bitter constitution. Their marriage has not happened yet, but was concocted to try and bind more Yronwood levies to the Martell name with the House itself seeming to shift more towards a crown-bound alliance. Moran is a lovable figure, after all, beloved in Sunspear and desired by all. It was a fine catch, on all accounts, but the House felt more splintered than ever to Alysanne. All she ever wanted was to be as gracious as her grandmother, after all, yet her sworn banners seemed to be slipping away to the Throne like sand through her fingers. She would still have her uncle (Though not for long) and aunt, at least, and a brother returned to try and bond with and her bastard relatives who she always had time for, but for the first time in her life, she felt alone. It was not a feeling she liked, and it would persist for 3 long years. In that time Alysanne would become an aunt, with her sister Ashara producing two children with her Uller husband that quickly stole Alysanne's heart. until that dreaded wedding invitation arrived. This time, with banners once more, Alysanne Martell of Dorne rode north not to fight, but to King’s Landing for celebrations and political machinations -- Indeed, it's own sort of battle. The ruling Princess of Dorne did not yet have a husband, after all -- And if the line was to continue, children must be produced. Princess' Plight Uh Oh The Dance of the Stags Uh Oh! Personality Known for a quick tongue and prideful personality, Alysanne is Dorne's spiteful wrath. She is passionate for her country and for her family. Following the Dragonpit and her abuse at the hands of Orys I Baratheon, her mental state has declined. Timeline * 350 AC - The Princesses Alysanne, Ashara and Arianne are born to Prince Quentos. Laerra of Lys dies. * 351 AC - Quentos Martell marries Dyanna Dayne. Obella Sand is sired by Marselen Sand. * 352 AC - Prince Daeron Martell, the younger half-brother, is born. * 356 AC - The Dornish Rebellion. Sunspear is sieged. Consort Aubrey Allyrion dies. Daeron is warded. * 362 AC - Prince Quentos Martell dies. Alysanne is named the heir to Sunspear. * 364 AC - Nymor Sand is born to Princess Rylona by an Essosi pirate. * 366 AC - The incumbent Princess Nymeria dies. Alysanne is named Princess of Dorne. * 367 AC - Prince Daeron Martell & Theodan Baratheon visit Sunspear. Trebor Sand is sired by Daeron. * 370 AC - The Martells march for the Iron Throne in the Second War of Reclamation. * 372 AC - Princess Arianne marries Lord Theodan. Princess Ashara marries Olyvar Uller. * 373 AC - Prince Dagos Martell is born to Princess Ashara and Olyvar Uller. * 374 AC - Princess Larra Martell is born to Princess Ashara and Olyvar Uller. Thread List Category:Character Category:House Martell Category:Dorne